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The May 4 Visitors Center (M4VC) is observing its 10th anniversary this spring. Following a “soft” opening in fall 2012, the center was officially dedicated as part of the May 4 Commemoration in 2013.

The center was created through the efforts and passion of Laura Davis, Professor Emerita of English, and Carole Barbato, professor of communication studies, who both were ������ students in spring 1970. Davis was an eyewitness to the May 4 shootings. Barbato, who died in 2014, wrote several books about the events of May 4.

Lori Boes has been affiliated with the center since the beginning. She now serves as interim director. Boes said Davis and Barbato were inspired to create the center after attending a presentation by anti-war activist Tom Hayden. “And he said, ‘It’s now time for you to tell your story.’ So, Laura and Carole really took that as a call to action. They thought, ‘If we don’t tell the story, who will be here to tell the story?’”

Developing the center and its mission

Davis and Barbato taught a course on May 4 at ������ for nearly 20 years, after inheriting it from Jerry Lewis and Thomas Hensley, professors Emeriti of Sociology and Political Science. Through teaching that class, the way to present the story at the visitors center unfolded. Gallery by gallery it came together, as Davis and Barbato remembered the questions their students had about that day and that time period.

“When we first started building the center, it was really to tell the story of Sandy, Allison, Bill and Jeff,” said Boes, referring to the four students (Sandy Scheuer, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Jeffrey Miller) who were killed when Ohio National Guard troops fired into a crowd during an anti-war demonstration on the Kent Campus. However, the center’s mission has evolved to providing a central place where people can explore and better understand the events that took place on that day, the context and impact of those events, and their meaning for today.

“I think our job now is to relate what happened more than 50 years ago to events that are happening now, like the ‘Women. Life. Freedom’ movement in Iran, like Black Lives Matter and the Parkland shootings.” Boes said.

In November, the center hosted “Women. Life. Freedom,” a discussion about the protests in Iran, presented by the ������ Women's Center in collaboration with the May 4 Visitors Center, the Wick Poetry Center, the School of Peace and Conflict Studies and student-led organizations, including the Society of Global Cultures and the May 4th Task Force.

“It’s relating to those movements that inspire young people,” Boes said. “We’re saying, ‘Look, this stuff happened in the past. We have to be diligent. We have to pay attention to stop these things or at least shed light on what is happening.’”

Since the May 4 Visitors Center opened on October 20, 2012, it has welcomed more than:

• 70, 800 outside visitors
• 1,025 First-Year Experience Classes
• 29,750 ������ students
• 162 upper-division ������ classes
• 76 visits from outside universities and colleges
• 109 high school/middle school students

Celebrity visits and getting out the vote

The visitors center has welcomed many notable guests in its 10 years, including film director Oliver Stone, filmmaker Ken Burns, journalist Gwen Ifill, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and late musician David Crosby. Portage County Commissioner Kathleen Clyde visited the center as it partnered with ������ Votes to encourage students to vote.

David Crosby visited the May 4 Visitors Center in 2017

“We believe that the 26th Amendment that was passed in 1971 was because of the shootings here,” Boes said. “And it’s important for ������ students to know that voting at 18 happened because of what happened here on May 4. Nixon felt that if they lowered the voting age, the students would stop protesting.”

The center also works with the Women’s Center on the “Elect Her” program. “They found if you can get women to run for undergraduate student government, they then run for other things after they graduate,” Boes said. “Recent graduate Tiera Moore went through that program and then ran for the Kent School Board and got elected. So, we’ve seen it here on campus.”

That’s how the center’s mission connects with what’s happening today. "We do those kinds of things where we partner with our people on campus on things that we find important or that relate to what happened here,” Boes said.

Evolving yet again

In 2022, the May 4 Visitors Center prepared a visioning report that involved nearly 100 stakeholders in updating the center’s mission, vision and values as well as its future strategic direction. As the center continues to review candidates for the director’s position, this report can serve as a guide for the person who is hired.

The Vocal Majority of 1969

Now, through the end of May, “” is featured as a temporary exhibit in the May 4 Visitors Center. The exhibit, created by ������ students, explores the peak of the anti-war movement in a local and national context in the fall before the protest and shootings on May 4.

������’s 53rd May 4 Commemoration is set for May 3 and 4 with a schedule of events that includes the annual Jerry Lewis Lecture Series, a special screening of the film “Young Plato” and panel discussion with filmmakers, the annual Candlelight Walk and Vigil, and the noon gathering on the Commons.